2013 Philippe Colin Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru Les Chaumees 750 ml

Wine Spectator’s 95-Point Philippe Colin Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chaumées

During the Great Recession, many of the top estates on the world’s most glamorous wine routes took it on the chin. As Otto and Del Posto struggled to fill seats on Saturday night, Tuscan wine sales slipped. Steakhouses failed nationwide, triggering a severe dip in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon sales. Bordeaux was briefly saved by Chinese speculators, only to be subsequently shaken as American importers turned their attention away from the high prices of the Gironde.

But on the limestone-strewn hillsides above three small hamlets just south of Beaune, few growers paid much attention to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. If the name outside your cellar door was Coche-Dury, Niellon, Colin, Ramonet, or Lafon, families that grow Premier Cru Chardonnay above Meursault and Chassagne- and Puligny-Montrachet, it was business as usual even as world markets crumbled.

In recent years, despite longstanding relationships and friendships with the greatest white wine producers in the world, we’ve struggled to pry out small allocations of the highest-rated white Burgundies. As was the case in 2012, 2013 was another tiny harvest, with yields down as much as 70% from the norm. The soft-spoken and self-effacing Philippe Colin crafted one of the most magnificent Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Crus in memory — a white Burgundy that much reminds us of the sensational 1985s, which we tasted out of barrel with Philippe’s father, Michel, in the early 1990s.

In the spring of 2013, on parcels at the very bottom of the Côte de Beaune where soils are more clayey and drainage is poor, growers tended vines in knee-high rubber boots. The mud was 6 inches deep! Wet conditions prevailed until early June, making for a small and irregular fruit set. Adding insult to injury, a hailstorm ripped through Burgundy in July; both Puligny- and Chassagne-Montrachet were touched, and up to 85% of the potential crop was decimated in a single afternoon!

But as Philippe and his dad have always said, Burgundian vintages are made or broken in the last weeks before harvest. Such would be the case in 2013. A cleansing wind began to blow in early September. By the 15th of the month, warm sunshine bathed the Colins’ small holding in Premier Cru Les Chaumées, mitigating the risk of disease. Three weeks later, under near perfect conditions, the Colins made the call to harvest. Yields were next to nothing, yet small-berry sugars were high. Acids, as always chez Colin, were electrifying.

The 2013 Philippe Colin Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chaumées Premier Cru is brilliant golden-yellow in hue. Mouthwatering aromas of sweet peach, beeswax, citronelle, and cloves, with highly mineral salinity. Big, round, and rich, seemingly sweet on entry, though as always chez Philippe Colin, this broad-scaled Premier Cru is bone-dry. Surprisingly accessible on release, due to its stunning sucrosité, but with plenty of underlying tautness and energy, arguing gracefully for 12-15 years of cellar slumber.

95 points from Wine Spectator, the highest-rated Premier Cru white Burgundies of the year. Just 150 cases were shipped stateside, 25 of which have been earmarked for WineAccess. $110 on release. $85 today — if you’re sufficiently fast on the draw. Shipping included on 3.